A Girl From Forever (The Forever Institute series Book 1)

by Yolanda McCarthy

  Will he lie? Or tell them his father was a traitor?

  “My father stayed, fighting Forever so that Fern and I,” he shakes our intertwined hands for emphasis, “could escape an attack on the Clifford Lane safe house. We’ve suspected for a long time that Forever have been murdering children. That night, we had proof. Fern witnessed them gun down a twelve year old girl.”

  Wait, this is not really the low profile introduction we discussed, I’m supposed to be just some girl Rehan picked up. I keep my face tranquil, but inside I’m furious. Where is he going with this?

  “How did they find the safe house?” shouts a man in the crowd.

  “Why did they kill the girl?” asks another.

  Rehan holds his hands up for calm. He’s really stepping into his father’s role.

  “They murdered the girl because she was Vol,” he says, using the second question as a way to avoid the first. “I know that not everyone here believes in Vol talents,” muttering starts around the room as old disagreements are re-aired, “and perhaps it doesn’t matter if we all believe the same thing, as long as we’re united against Forever. But it does matter that Forever believe in Vol abilities, take them seriously enough that they’re attempting to wipe them out, one child at a time.

  “We’re all here because we know that Forever can’t be allowed to go on. Forever has destroyed families, livelihoods. Corrupted the government and the police. Killed people we love. Stolen our country, and they won’t stop there. It’s Forever, not Vol, that shouldn’t exist. Their serum, if it’s real, shouldn’t exist. No-one should live forever! We’re here because we believe in Keeping Humans Human!”

  The room cheers. Someone starts to stamp their feet in applause, and others take it up.

  Rehan raises his voice to bellow over the applause. “They call themselves scientists, but what has their science given the world? A serum they won’t share. Murdered children. The government takes their bribes and looks the other way. This will not be our forever. No more! It’s time to end the Forever Institute. Time that the people, time that we, shout: enough!” The room is quiet now, as people realise that this is not merely a morale-boosting lecture, or the expected salute to a lost leader.

  There’s a new leader, and he’s not holding them back like Lucas did.

  He’s urging them on.

  The crowd hangs on Rehan’s every word. “Fern and I are taking the fight to Forever. We know how to get in. We know what to do when we’re in there. And we’re going to destroy every last bottle of serum in the place and make sure that no-one, no-one can make it again. We’re going to avenge those dead children, and save lives.”

  I wish he hadn’t said avenge.

  I wish he hadn’t said we.

  “But we need you,” he continues. “You know that we can’t do it without you. It won’t be easy, this is the big one, this is it. Too many of us have died already. So many friends lost, this week alone. Perhaps I shouldn’t ask this, but I’m going to. Are you in?”

  There’s an awful silence, and for a moment I expect the room to start laughing, but then a man stands up. “I’m in,” he declares. “I still don’t believe in psychics, but if you’re going against Forever, I’m there.”

  “I’m in,” someone else murmurs, and then another. The words ripple back and forth around the room, and Rehan bows his head.

  “Thank you,” he says simply.

  “That was quite the introduction,” I snap at Rehan, as we walk deeper into the maze of rooms at the back of the warehouse, leaving an excited crowd behind us. “I thought I was going to be just some girl.”

  “It’s better this way.”

  “But it’s not what we agreed.”

  “I just thought of it on the way in, all right?”

  We’ve run out of time to talk, arriving at our destination, a concrete-walled room full of metal boxes, chairs, and scribbled notes scattered across a table, on which sits a lonely laptop, trailing wires to a screen on the wall. A pop-up HQ.

  There’s two other men here, much older than us. Their serious gazes make me feel like a squabbling teenager. They ask nothing about me.

  Rehan takes them through his plan, and I listen properly for the first time. It’s straightforward: a diversion attack at the front gate, and a second diversion from boats the river, which hopefully Forever will assume to be the real attack. But the real attack will be inside, where Rehan and I will have made our way directly into Forever using underground tunnels, protected by the handful of KHH with military experience.

  “How do you know there’s a tunnel?” I ask.

  “It was a power station,” Rehan says. So patronising. “The ground under the building is riddled with tunnels that used to carry heat, electrical cables, so on. But that’s not where we’re going in. We’re going through the tunnels that go to the river. They used to move water in and out that way, for cooling. I’ve planned this a thousand times.”

  “Then why haven’t you done it?”

  He looks away. “Dad wasn’t keen.”

  Yeah, I guess Lucas wouldn’t have been keen to sign off on a serious attack on his employers. Firing a few rounds at the car park is pretty different to getting inside the central building.

  “Surely it’s all been filled in?” I ask. “They’ll know that the tunnels are there.” Lucas would have pointed out Forever’s weaknesses to them. Or, perhaps not, he was a very reluctant mole, and this plan came from his son…

  “Of course they’ve been filled in. Evan knows a demolition guy – Rini?” The taller man, Evan, nods. “Rini. The choice we need to make is whether to work our way through the concrete on the night of the attack, or do it a few days in advance, so that we can be already under the building by the time the diversion starts. Although – I don’t like waiting, either. Ideally we’d do this asap.” He frowns at the computer, and I know he’s worried about other Forever spies, perhaps even my classmates’ talents. Mark was clairaudient, he hears random things from outside, what if he finally hears something useful? Of course he would tell them.

  “We don’t want to be drilling before there’s a diversion,” points out the shorter man. “Otherwise what’s it a diversion from?”

  “Well from the entry—” Rehan begins.

  “And there’s more chance they’ll find out that the tunnel’s been reopened, the longer it’s open,” chips in Evan. “I say we do it as we go.”

  Is anyone going to ask what I think about this attack on my former home? No?

  “That’ll make for a very long diversion,” Rehan worries. “Chances of KHH fatalities are much higher that way, and it might even get shut down before we’ve got into the building.”

  “Won’t they just call the police? The army?” I ask. Everyone stares at me.

  “No,” answers Rehan. “They’ll want to deal with us themselves.” Grim smiles around the room. “But the diversion will be too long—”

  “Not if we do it properly,” answers Evan. “We can do a lot with remote explosives, we don’t need many people at the first diversion. No, the problem is going to be keeping you guys out of trouble inside, and getting you back out. Perhaps start a fire? You could drive people downstairs while you head to the roof, and take out a lot of their equipment quickly. What exactly are you going after inside, anyway?”

  “Manufacture, storage, inventor,” says Rehan. They exchange nods.

  “And rescuing some people,” I interject.

  They’d all forgotten I was there. “We think there’s some Vol teenagers being held inside,” says Rehan quickly, glaring at me.

  “It’s a rescue mission as well? What are you doing to me, that changes everything,” complains the shorter man. The atmosphere shifts, and I feel guilty, though I’m not sure why. They need to know that we’re trying to sneak nine people out.

  Maybe Rehan just doesn’t care about that bit of it. Maybe he doesn’t actually mean to make it happen. Maybe I’m still falling for lies. I sink into a depressed silence and don�
�t interrupt again.

  Eventually, it’s settled. Diversion 1: explosives at Kirtling Street gate. Phoned-in warnings about other nearby locations, and barriers preventing access to those areas. Diversion 2: a mortar fired from the river at an empty stairwell – I insisted on that target – while other KHH people attack from the riverside. Meanwhile, Rehan and I will go in through the cooling duct tunnels, with three KHH ex-soldiers and this demolition guy, Rini. His job is to get us past any obstacles in the tunnel. KHH know from previous recces that there’s a concrete barrier, but we won’t know how thick it is until we start drilling.

  Once inside, we’ll silently work our way up through the air conditioning infrastructure, to the top of the building, which should have been evacuated by then. Then, down through the rooms, creating havoc as we go, until we find the laboratory. My job is to find and identify it, Rehan’s is to destroy it. Then, he’ll use his talent to work out where the Vol minds are in the building, and I’ll rescue my friends while Rehan hunts John. We’ll all meet on the roof, from where a KHH backup team will rescue us by helicopter. The rest of KHH will damage power lines and the generators, hopefully giving us a fighting chance of getting away without anyone being killed.

  Except John. I’m not sure how I feel about that. I wanted to plan a rescue, not a murder, but Rehan is insistent that the whole purpose of this is to end the serum, and that means its inventor, too. I’ve known John my whole life, I’ve never actually met him, but he talked to us on screen every week, motivated us, mentored us. My instinct is to protect him, yet… He started all this. Stole us from our mothers. I can’t let him carry on.

  “This was much easier when no-one was going inside,” complains the shorter man, checking through his notes. “You sure you want to do that?”

  “Have to,” says Rehan.

  Evan looks at him, hesitates, then shrugs. “Your call, but we can only wait until the set time, then I have to let them pound the building, so you’d better be on the roof by then. Where are the serum labs?”

  Rehan looks at me. I move forward, and point to an area of the fifth floor. Evan highlights it in red. “And the inventor?” he asks.

  “His quarters are opposite the laboratory, he works in there at odd times. I think. We did a tour of the building, but it was a while back,” I mumble.

  “Timing?” Rehan asks.

  Evan looks at his friend. “Tonight. We did have something planned for the day after tomorrow – a lot of the kit’s here already – there’s actually no reason to wait on this. We’re practically good to go. It’s still early, and the fireworks around here might help by causing confusion at the beginning. And if you’re right about them having psychics… Makes no sense to wait.”

  I look at Evan. Does he suspect that KHH has a mole? I wonder how much he trusts us.

  “How are we for explosives?” Rehan worries. “We used a lot last week on the wall. Anything new?”

  We need something that Lucas didn’t know about.

  The shorter guy grins, revealing a gold tooth. “Don’t you worry about that,” he says. “When we heard about what happened to Lucas, we went shopping.”

  Evan shakes his head, sheepish, “And we got a bit carried away.”

  I’m weirdly reminded of life at the Institute, as KHH springs into action. Like there, I’m central to everything that’s happening, and like there, I’m not truly part of it. Inside, it was because I had no talent. Outside, it’s because I’m new, and more than that, we all know that I just don’t fit in, although only Rehan knows why. I’m no freedom fighter, or terrorist, or whatever KHH is today.

  That said, it’s satisfying when a patronising wall of muscle stares at me in the weapons store and asks Rehan what he’s supposed to issue to me. “She won’t be able to hold anything up, let alone hit anything,” he mutters when Rehan suggests a semi-auto rifle, a handgun and a set of mixed grenades.

  “Have you fired a gun before? Do you know about recoil?” he asks, eyeing me dubiously. I fish out Lia’s gun out from under my jacket. Rehan blinks. I place it casually on the counter in between me and the hulk, where it lies sleek and sinister next to the clunky older weapons he’s thinking about offering me.

  “I usually use this,” I explain, “but I’m out of ammo.”

  He smiles, and reaches for a shelf. “Not a problem, darling.” Two heavy boxes are dumped on the counter in front of me, and he turns to get me a vest.

  I’m lying to them both, really. I’ve never fired at anything other than a range target, and I don’t think I could kill someone. I couldn’t shoot Lia to protect Anna, protect my freedom. Could I shoot Geraldine to rescue Katrina? I think about Geraldine’s shaky hands as she popped the daily dose of pills that she wouldn’t discuss with us, and her endless library of romance books which kept me sane through some dark times. Could I hurt the woman from whom I borrowed The Duke’s Dangerous Desire?

  Then I think about all the lies. About the data stick.

  Analysis of Fern’s cerebrum is obviously recommended.

  The metal from the ammo boxes cuts into my hands, and I look down to see that my fingers are clenched so tightly, bones gleam through the skin.

  I sit on the floor of the warehouse hangar, picking at its uneven concrete, listening to the sound of weapons being carted back and forth. Vehicles back up to the side door for loading. The concrete is cold, but all the chairs are taken. No-one talks to me.

  I never knew that being a conspirator involved so much waiting about.

  A shout comes from the doorway. “Rehan! Rini’s here!”

  Demolition guy? I wander over, trying to look like I belong, and look over Rini’s equipment.

  It looks like a load of hosepipes.

  Rehan comes up behind me. “Hey,” he says. “What do you think?”

  “It’s hosepipes. Where’s the drill to get through the tunnel?”

  “Change of plan. Forever might hear or feel the drilling, so Rini suggested we use hydro.”

  “Water.”

  “Yep, we’ll be right by the river, so we can just pump it in and out. That’s what the pipes are for.”

  “You’re going to get rid of a concrete wall with water.”

  “And a laser. It’s called hydrolasic demolition, it’s a thing, promise.”

  “If you say so.”

  I thought drilling was a bad idea, but drilling looks like genius compared to this. With this kit, we’ll still be at the riverside with the world’s cleanest concrete wall, long after both diversions are finished.

  Rehan takes in my expression. “Look, we’ll take dynamite too in case there’s a problem, but this is the best way, honest. Rini reckons the hydro will be fine.”

  “Who’s this Rini anyway?”

  “Evan says he’s a good guy.”

  “You don’t know him?”

  “Not well, but we need his kit. And this way, we can start well before the diversions, so we’ll be practically under the building when it all kicks off.”

  “We’re going in first?”

  He grins at me. “We are. Get some sleep, we’re off at four.”

  “Why are you rushing this?”

  The grin slides away. “You know why.” Because Lucas may not have been the only mole. Because, if Forever are waiting for us, it’s all over for Rehan, for KHH, and for me.

  “Only four people know which tunnel we’re going in through,” Rehan offers.

  “I hope they’re good guys.”

  “Yeah.”

  We watch the truck unload.

  After half of the equipment has been unloaded, Evan and Rini, cursing their supplier, take the other half off into the night to hunt down some missing kit. Rehan finds me a bunk and a sleeping bag in a back room. KHH is used to having people stay over, it seems.

  I drop my grubby backpack to the floor. Rehan’s searching his. He pulls something out and comes over.

  “Here,” he wraps my hands around a wad of money. “In case we get separated. There’s eno
ugh cash there to get you back to Anna. Your friends, too.”

  “I can’t take this.”

  “Don’t be silly. Besides, it came from Forever originally. So it’s more yours than mine.” My fingers push it away, so he zips it into my coat, and turns to go.

  I don’t want to be left alone here, in this concrete box that smells of chemicals and lies and failure.

  “Stay with me,” the words are out before I can stop them. Even though I don’t trust him, even though I’m still angry with him. He’s the only person I know in England outside Forever, and I don’t want to be alone tonight.

  He hesitates near the door, turning back, his eyes searching, unsure what I mean. “There’s a thousand things to do still—”

  “It’s after eleven. We’re leaving at four. Tomorrow won’t go well if you’re half-asleep, and everyone seems clear what they’re doing, they don’t need you staring at them while they do it. There’s another bunk…”

  We look at the camp bed on the far side of the room, and I feel like I’ve put up a massive sign saying don’t touch me. Which is fine. That’s what I want.

  He shrugs. “Got to crash sometime I suppose. I’ll get my things.”

  Is he asleep? I’m not asleep. The bunk is too hard and the room smells of weird chemicals and the building is full of strangers and tomorrow they’re going to attack my home. I’m going to attack my home.

  I listen to his breathing. It’s slow, but I don’t know him well enough to know if that means he’s sleeping. I want to sleep, I need to sleep. I don’t want to mess up tomorrow.

  It’s too dark, I can’t see a thing apart from the outline of the window. I reach for my backpack, next to the bed, feel the soft pink scarf tucked in the top, that Anna gave me. I tug it out and wind it around my hand.